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Topic: Any twitchers out there! (Read 1572 times)

Hi,I purchased this Mats Jonasson bird paperweight last weekend but I have been unable to find out what bird it is.Is it a woodpecker, treecreeper, nuthatch or something else. I think it's quite an old piece as there are movement scratches on the base along with MJ's sig and also the number 9367 although the number is not easy to make out due to the feint scratches.Any ideas please?CheersBryn

Just to let you know that I contacted the Matsjonasson web site, but they have no records that go back as far as my paperweight I'm afraid, they say it is a pre 1990 item and as such is no longer on their records. So the birdie remains a mystery :huh:

Different species! Nuthatch is sitta europaea, and Treecreeper is Certhia Familiaris.

The bird in the weight has features that could suggest Treecreeper but its position and stance on the "branch" is not what I am used to as they usually land on trunks of trees before moving upwards (but then I've only seen a few Treecreeper). In the weight, the tail seems to be pressed against something, causing it to curve along the edge of the weight. Treecreepers certainly use the tail in that way but, again, I have only seen them doing their thing on trunks so I can't commment much on whether the stance shown is lifelike (and Jonasson creatures tend to be lifelike!).

Another thing in favour of Treecreeper is the bill which appears to be downcurved. However it looks a little thicker at the base of the bill than I would expect.

I don't think it's a Nuthatch because the tail is too long and the bill is not 'strong and straight'. The stance on an open "branch" might suggest Wryneck (type of small woodpecker), which is definitely well spread across mainland Europe, but the bill doesn't look right for that and the body seems too short and 'chubby'.